Apocalypse, again, again
The first week of January was how many days long? A million? Is it still last week? I don’t know, guys, I’m just over here doing my best.
Here’s some reading material:
On Thursday, I wrote about Hollywood blockbusters and why all the politicians in the world can’t turn our present reality into Act III of this movie. We’re squarely in Act II.
I talked to a seminary professor about why there were so many shofars being toted around DC last week. (Stay tuned for a rabbi’s perspective, coming soon.)
I also managed to review a very good movie about autism, and provide a guide to the 2021 Oscars which, believe it or not, are still happening. (A long, long way from now.)
Jeremy Seifert (incidentally, a graduate of Fuller Theological Seminary) has an op-doc at the New York Times called “Ark of the Apocalypse,” about that full-scale replica ark that looms over a small town in Kentucky. It’s about twelve minutes long.
It’s a great week to watch The Death of Stalin, which is on Netflix, if you haven’t already, or even if you have. It is a comedy, almost a screwball comedy?, from Armando Iannucci (best known in the US for creating Veep). It is not in Russian. Here’s my review from when it came out a few years ago.
This Timothy Snyder piece is essential reading.
As is Liz Breunig’s piece on yet another man, this time one who is intellectually disabled, who is set to be executed by the federal government this week.
With more cheer: my friend David Ehrlich (one of Indiewire’s film critics) makes a wonderful short film counting down his top 25 movies of the year every year. It’s joyful, it’s beautifully edited, it’s just a blast even if you haven’t seen any of the movies at all. The latest version came out today, thankfully. Watch it on a loop.
And finally, I did a Q&A (via Zoom) with Thomas Vinterberg, the Danish director of Another Round (one of my favorite films of 2020, with a dancing Mads Mikkelsen), and an edited version of it is up on YouTube. I didn’t check all the way through, but there’s a good chance our conversation about Kierkegaard made the cut. You can watch it here.
Hold onto your seats, take some deep breaths, have some tea, and let’s keep going.